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What does everyone think about "copying" start ups in other countries?
For example, I could look at the abundance of high growth start ups in specific countries or regions and then adapt them to another country before they even have the experience and capital to go international.
There are a lot of advantages IMO of doing this, such as:
- a proven market; save a ****load of $$$ on testing products/markets
- publicity; people from other countries may prefer to go with a local company if they are interested about the "original" company
- funding; I would assume that investors are willing to invest in a business where it has been successful elsewhere
Most businesses are not unique, so why not build a fresh and potentially high growth business?
Who gives a **** if its copying? I certainly won't when I am banking 10k/day
I can recite numerous examples of where this has happened, most commonly between US/Silicon Valley >> Europe
With this kind of thing, I'd go much more for B2B companies than a lot of the high-press consumer internet startups.
My thinking behind this (and it's paraphrased from an article I read somewhere so hopefully someone else remembers where and can link it) is that there basically gets to be one Instagram. They win, and their competitors are almost all going to die out and earn little to no money in the process.
On the other hand, think about Square doing mobile payments. They are growing rapidly in America and have proven there is a need for this kind of technology. However, they can't be spending time right now learning the ins-and-outs of financial regulations in 150 different countries. So start the Square of South Korea, or Central Europe, or whatever. You see that people want and need this who are willing to pay for it. And when Square is ready to move into these new countries buying an existing firm is likely to be much easier for them.